Smythe The Breadwinners 1890 {1891} NGV [WT]

Smythe, Lionel (1839-1918; English)
The Breadwinners 1890
Watercolour on paper, 63.5 x 48.2 cm 
Purchased, 1891 (advice of Hubert von Herkomer)
National Gallery of Victoria (p.430.54-1)

[photo: as reproduced in NGV 1905] 

The 1894 catalogue quotes Herkomer’s praise of the artist’s sensitive handling of this subject, indicating that the work was shown at the Royal Academy in 1891. Herkomer added that Smythe belonged to the same landscape “school” as North and Walker (see Walker (F.) The Right of Way {1891} NGV [PA]).

Refs.

AR 1891, p.24; NGV 1894, p.63 (II.Stawell Gallery, no.116; quoting Herkomer, as noted); NGV 1905, p.38 (II.Stawell Gallery, no.6; ill.) [£150] 

Not reproduced in current NGV catalogue

For Smythe, see Bénézit 12, p.1396 (listing this work), and Mallalieu (1976), p.242, noting that he was elected to the RWS in 1894 and the RA in 1911